iSuppli

The folks that see how inexpensive an item is to produce and feel that the manufacturer should have little to no profit over this cost are certainly not going to enjoy what they're hearing from IHS iSuppli about Microsoft today, that's for sure. With a a Bill of Materials (BOM) cost of $271 USD and a $13 USD manufacturing cost, the total cost of the Microsoft Surface RT with minimum 32GB NAND flash memory becomes $248 in all, this placing it well below retail price at $599. IHS iSuppli note that compared to the low-end iPad (that being the iPad 2 in this case), the Surface RT generates a greater profit margin in percentage terms and on a per-unit basis as well.

Whenever a new high-profile device is released, we can count on a number of teardowns from a variety of different sources to show us its innards. One of these sources is IHS iSuppli, which has delivered its teardown report for the new iPad mini. In its teardown, IHS iSuppli found that the cheapest iPad mini costs only $188 to produce.

For the first time since the dot-com bust 11 years ago, PC shipments are expected to decline 1.2% from last year, with an anticipated drop from 2011's 352.8 million units to 348.7 million units. PC sales have been lagging all year, with a recent study showing that out of the top four vendors, only Lenovo experienced an increase in sales. While disconcerting, the hope that back-to-school sales would boost the numbers, as is usually the case, kept everyone optimistic.

If you're a fan of the ultra-gigantic and super-high-definition television environment that exists amongst the super-rich, then you'll be glad to know that more 4G resolution televisions are on the way! While shipments of 4K LCD-TVs across the planet are only up to 4,000 units throughout 2012, they'll ramp up to 2.1 million units in 2017 - that accounting for less than 1 percent of all LCD shipments in both cases. All of this information and analysis comes from IHS iSuppli (now just IHS after iSuppli joined the team fully) and leads into the most important point here: the 4k television may only be a passing fad.

The iPhone 5 features a number of hardware improvements over iPhones of the past, but how much are those improvements costing Apple? That's what IHS iSuppli is determined to find out in its latest teardown, but this one is a little bit different than the teardowns were used to from IHS iSuppli. You see, the folks at IHS iSuppli haven't gotten their hands on an iPhone 5 just yet, so this is a "virtual" teardown based on the specifications Apple has announced, combined with prior knowledge of Apple's suppliers and manufacturing partners.

A new infographic has been put together by iSuppli that delves into the numbers behind Nokia and Apple's profit margins in mobile. It really shows why it's so difficult for Nokia or almost any competitor to put a dent in Apple's dominance. The chart compares the cost to produce the Lumia 900 versus the iPhone 4S, revealing that Apple not only gets to charge way more for its device but also pays less for its components.

This week the folks at IHS, aka IHS iSuppli, have revealed what they've torn down and discovered to be as the price of the components which make up the Nokia Lumia 900. This device apparently costs a mere $209 in parts plus $8 to build, putting the device at 46 percent of its retail price. The reason Nokia is able to make this fabulous feat a reality is their relatively new triad of close ties with Microsoft and Qualcomm - this creating a hardware and software powerhouse which allows for top-tier features with lower-tiered pricing akin to Apple's own "playbook" for device creation.

This year will mark a first for the TV industry with iSuppli predicting the first ever fall for flat-panel TV shipments. If shipments do in fact fall this year it will be the first time growth has declined since the flat-panel TV market started. Forecasts predict a decline to 37.1 million units, which will be down 5% from the 39.1 million units shipped in 2011.

Amazon has ramped up Kindle Fire tablet production to in excess of 5m units before the year is out, supply chain sources have revealed, amid continued strong pre-order demand for the 7-inch ereader slate. Original production estimates were around 3.5m units in 2011, DigiTimes highlights, with that figure already being bumped once, mid-Q3, to 4m. However the loss-leading risk of the ebook retailer's advertising and media-sales supported model has been highlighted by a new teardown of the $79 Kindle that suggests Amazon loses more than $5 on every sale.

According to research firm IHS iSuppli, smartphone sales will finally beat dumb-phone or "feature phone" sales by 2015. Despite all the rage around the latest smartphones, feature phones still currently account for a majority of mobile phone sales with only 32.5 percent of sales this year expected to be for smartphones.